Can't I Escape Towns With Crazy People and Monster
by MiraclesVeemon
Summary: Xandra Harris has been taken away from the Hellmouth by her uncle Rory and is eager to live a normal life. But how can that be possible when she befriends a boy with the spirit of a pharaoh and a boy with the spirit of a thief? I own nothing but the plot and femXander.
1. New life for the Zeppo

"New City & New People & New Problems for the Zeppo"

Xandra Harris was shipped off to live with her uncle Rory in some small city in Japan called Domino because her parents drinking had gotten worse than usual, so now after her friends tried to find ways to keep her with them and failing, she was now in a whole new country wandering around her block, looking for anything interesting to prolong her unpacking and to just get over the shock of the whole thing.

It's true that everyone in her family suffered from drinking problems, but Rory cleaned himself up so he could get custody over his niece and take her in and give her a brand new start without worrying over her drunken parents and fighting off monsters from the Hellmouth every other week while patrolling the cemetery every night for vampires.

Xandra swore that she would try to enjoy her new chance at living an ordinary life, but still had a feeling that she was jinxing herself to the extreme, but shrugged it off with a silent prayer to the Powers That Be that nothing bad would happen.

She stopped at the end of her block to see a cute little game shop and decided to walk in and check it out since she didn't want to go home just yet.

She walked in and saw that there were some high school students there talking about something, so she left them to look at some stacks that had card packs on them with this new trading card game called Duel Monsters.

They looked interesting to her and had a strange pull on her.

She was broken out of her gazing when she heard a loud noise and saw one of the students, the tallest one with brown hair, had this bad vibe around him that set off her Hellmouth radar.

Xandra was unsure of why she did it, but she quickly walked over to the group, slipping in between the brunette and the counter where an old man sat, surprising everyone by her sudden appearance.

Xandra looked up into the man's dark blue eyes, feeling shocked by how familiar his face was to her and he seemed to feel the same as her.

"No offence, but I think it's time you leave." she said in a steady voice standing tall.

The man shook off his surprise and glared down at her before he turned and left, slamming the door behind him.

Xandra sighed and then turned back to the other people in the shop there.

"Why'd ya help us out?" asked a blonde haired male.

"I don't like bullies. It's that simple." she said crossing her arms as she remembered a few people who had bullied her over time.

The old man behind the counter smiled at her and she felt like she had seen him somewhere before.

"Well, thank you for the help. But I've never seen you around here before." he said.

"Oh, well I just moved here today with my uncle." she said with a smile.

"Hey, are you from America?" asked a boy with brown hair.

"Yeah."

"Did you come from New York? Oh, I'm Tea Gardner by the way." said a girl with brown hair and blue eyes.

"I'm Tristan Taylor, hi there." said the brown haired brown eyed boy.

"Hey dere, Joey Wheeler at your service." said the blonde haired amber eyed boy.

"And I'm Yugi Moto. This is my grandpa's shop." said a cute boy with wild black hair done up in spikes with magenta colored in it and blonde bangs with pretty amethyst eyes.

"And I'm Solomon Moto, but please, call me Grandpa." said the old man.

"I'm Xandra Harris and I just moved here from Sunnydale, California." she said with a smile.

"Where's Sunnydale?" asked Tristan.

"It's like a two hour drive from Los Angeles."

"Sunnydale? It sounds like a nice place to live!" said Tea.

Xandra almost laughed at that.

Only those who have never been to Sunnydale would say something so foolish like that.

"So what was that guy being all crazy about?" she asked wanting a change of subject.

"Kaiba wanted a rare Duel Monster card that my grandpa has." said Yugi.

Solomon then brought out a small box and opened it to reveal a card that had a blue and white dragon with dark sapphire eyes that had the name 'Blue Eyes White Dragon'.

"It's beautiful!" Xandra gasped staring at it in wonder.

Solomon laughed in glee at the look on her face since it reminded him of the one Yugi always wore when he saw something he truly liked and was interested in.

It was so innocent and kind, something that he wished everyone in the world still had especially with all the evil and danger in it.

"I'm glad you think so. It's so hard to find young people who respect such rare finds as these."

"So why was the Oppressed One all moody about it?" she asked.

Joey snorted at that name.

"He wanted to buy this card, but Grandpa didn't want to give it away." Yugi explained.

"This card means everything to me. It has my heart and soul in it, but it was also given to me by a dear friend." Solomon said.

Xandra smiled sadly as her hand went up to play with a choker around her neck.

It had three charms on it that had letters with rhinestones on them.

There was an 'X' for Xandra, a 'W' for Willow and last was a "J' for Jesse, who was the one that gave the choker to her when they were ten years old.

The choker was really just a black velvet ribbon that had the letters tied on it, but it still looked nice and simple and it was a gift that Jesse had made for her so it meant more to her than anything since it was also the last thing she had of her best friend before he was turned into a vampire and she had to stake him.

Later on after she met Buffy and Giles she added a 'B' and 'G' charm on for her new friends and even added an 'A' for Angel (even though she didn't like him that well), an 'O' for Oz and a 'C' for Cordelia.

Tea noticed her choker and asked about it.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked pointing to it.

"'JWBXAGOC?' What da heck does that mean?" asked Joey.

"It's the first letter in my friends' names." Xandra explained.

Yugi heard the tone she used.

It was filled with so much passion when she thought of her friends and he realized that she must have loved them all dearly and it hurt her to move away from them.

"What are their names?" asked Tristan.

"Jesse, Willow, Buffy, Angel, Giles, Oz and Cordeilia. The X is for my name." she said, her voice sad when she said the first name making Yugi wonder if anything bad happened with this Jesse person.

They all then began asking Xandra more questions and soon got the girl interested in Duel Monsters.

They even got her to buy a few packs and Solomon offered to train her since he seemed to like the girl which surprised Yugi since he was the only one his grandfather ever trained, but he could understand what he meant.

Xandra just had something special about her.

(Scene Change)

The next day Xandra was pouting at her reflection because of the uniform she was forced to wear.

It was a pink blazer with a blue scarf thing, a blue skirt that was too short in her opinion, white socks and brown shoes.

She sent a picture of herself in it to her girl friends and they all tweeted about how cute she looked in it.

She grabbed her bag and then went downstairs to see Rory was there eating, but when he saw her he began laughing which earned him a glare from the zeppo, her burgundy eyes holding no humour to them that made the older man pale slightly and stop.

"Sorry, it's just that I haven't seen you in anything pink since you were a baby." he said.

Xandra lost the glare and went back to pouting as she flung herself into her seat and took her breakfast.

After she was done, she ran off to school since Rory couldn't drive her because he had to get to work soon and it was the opposite direction her school was in.

She got to the school and tried to find her way around, but she got lost quite easily.

"Great. My fist day and I can't even find the principal's office." she said.

"It happens to everyone." a soft English voice said.

Xandra turned around and saw a boy with shoulder length snowy hair and warm brown eyes standing behind her with a shy smile.

"Oh?" she asked.

"Yes. I got lost on my first day as well. My name is Ryou Bakura. Would you like some help finding your way?" he asked.

"Yeah, that would be great. I'm Xandra Harris." she said.

Ryou smiled and showed her to where the principal's office was and stayed around to help her out since they had about six classes together including homeroom.

"If you want I can introduce you to my friends." he said.

"Really? That's great! You don't happen to be evil, do you?" she asked.

He froze, shocked at the question.

"I'm from California. Cute and nice guys normally equal crazy psycho killers and rapists in disguise. No offence." she said.

He laughed nervously and waved it off as he led her to their homeroom.

As they entered the teacher introduced her and waved her off to go sit next to Ryou and she went off happily and was surprised to see Tea, Tristan, Joey and Yugi were all in her class and so was Kaiba, but he was keeping his distance.

The group all sat together and talked, Yugi helping Xandra learn how to duel better.

The girl dragged Ryou into it too, insisting that he duel with them and the English boy couldn't help but give in to her and agree.

(Scene Change)

The day then came to an end and Xandra went home as the others went to the game shop, but Ryou insisted on walking home with her to be a gentleman and she allowed it, but jokingly threatened that if he was really some sick evil monster in disguise, she would beat him to death with a shovel and he agreed knowing that she was serious.

"You must have had some really bad experiences with the guys in Sunnydale if you think I'm evil." he said.

"Cute guys being nice to me equals evil intensions. It's a fact." she stated.

"That's horrible." He said.

"Yeah, especially since my first two boyfriends tried to either rape me and/or kill me." she muttered not meaning for him to hear, but he did.

"What?" Ryou yelled.

He then began to fuss over her saying how awful that all must have been and didn't blame her for not trusting him, she had every right to be wary and cautious of all men after what she went through.

Xandra told him to not worry about it and then they separated to go to their respective homes.

(Scene Change)

Xandra was dreaming, or at least she felt like she was, when she saw that she was in some sort of game shop with these large game systems that had two monsters on them, the opponents being Kaiba and Yugi, although he did look more mature and taller, so she doubted that it was him.

She walked over to the pair, going up to where the Yugi look-a-like stood and put her hand on his shoulder, making him look up from the cards in his hand and looked over to her, shocked to see her.

"You aren't really gonna let this guy take you down so easily, are you?" she asked.

"Xandra, what are you doing here?" he asked in a deeper voice.

"Don't know. What I do know is; you are not going to back down. You are the best darn duellist I know and you are going to show this guy just how great you are by—What the heck happened to your hand?" she asked looking at the hand that was scribbled on with a black marker.

He looked at his hand.

"Tea drew them to symbolize our friendship." He said.

"Aren't Ryou and I your friends too? That hardly seems fair that we missed out on the whole friendship speech thing." She said with a pout making him chuckle at her in amusement.

"I suppose it isn't fair to either of you. But you weren't here in the beginning to see what happened, so that may have been why." He said.

"I'm still not happy, but whatever. Just use that big brain of yours to figure out a brilliant plan to kick that guy's rump back into the next century."

He nodded and then played the five cards he needed to summon Exodea, a very powerful monster that made the American gap in shock and awe at its sheer power as it obliterated Kaiba's monster and the rest of his life points.

The Yugi look-a-like then used some sort of mind crush power to cleanse him of the darkness that tainted his heart and soul.

He then turned to look at the dark haired girl as she gave him a curious look.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Who are you anyway?" she asked him.

He seemed shocked by that question, not expecting it at all.

"What are you talking about? I am Yugi." He said.

"You think I'm an idiot or somethin'? Only an idiot wouldn't be able to tell that you aren't Yugi. You look more like you could be his big brother." She stated putting her hands on her hips in a very Buffy like fashion.

"What gave it away?" he asked.

"Hair, eyes, voice, speech pattern, personality change and you grew." She said, not missing a beat.

He shook his head and chuckled in amusement at how easily the girl had figured out his secret as the stand they were in stared to lower to the ground.

"So who are you?" she asked.

"My memory is mostly a blank, dark void. I cannot remember anything from my past. But I have been called by Yami once in my many years." He said.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet ya Yami. I'm Xandra." The girl said shaking his hand making him chuckle in amusement again at how carefree she was about the whole thing.

When they finally reached the ground, Yami turned back into Yugi and he was then tackled to the ground by Joey as Xandra felt something tugging her away from the scene and she wound up waking up in her own bed at home.

"That was weird." She said looking around her room before shrugging and going back to sleep.

TBC


	2. Poll

**This is a poll, people. I would like to know which card you think Xandra should have a close relationship with, which one and why. I was thinking about using Bertinatrix or the Mystic Elf because I like those two cards or maybe a made up one, but I would like to here what you all think, so please tell me and the one I like the most will be added into Xandra's deck of cards and is chosen as her favorite. Thank you for your support and thank you to Nightcrawlerlover and Black-T3rr0rz for reviewing my first chapter, I really appreciate it. =)**


	3. A New Threat?

"A New Threat?"

The next morning Xandra was eating bacon with her uncle, still feeling amazed that the stuff didn't make her sick considering the fact that she had eaten a live pig before when she was possessed by the hyena before and she was also watching a parody video on the Key of Awesome site on Youtube, feeling slightly insulted about the California Gurls video that was done.

She was from California and she was nothing like that and neither were any of the any girls.

It was only the ones that weren't from California that tried to act like they were originally from there from trying to look all hot and stuff, but it was just insulting by how they acted.

The poser Cali girls acted worse than Cordy and the cordettes and just pissed her off so much, but whatever, the video was still funny, but the Glitter Puke, Call Me Maybe and You Don't know you're Beautiful videos were better in her opinion.

The sound of someone knocking on the door made the two Harris' look up over in the direction, neither getting up to go see who it was.

Rory, deciding to be the mature one got up with a grumble and his niece smiled innocently as he went.

Xandra pasued the video and checked her messages to see if Willow or Buffy had messaged her yet and saw that Willow had and she gaped when she saw that Angel had lost his soul and was with Drucilla and Spike, wreaking havoc and terror in the night again.

"I knew I never liked that guy." She muttered.

"Xan, some friends I didn't know about are here to walk you to school!" Rory called.

Xandra frowned before she turned off her lap top and grabbed her bag before she stood up and went to see who was at the door waiting on her as Rory passed her, muttering about food and coffee and she saw that it was Ryou, Yugi, Joey, Tristan and Tea that were waiting on her, although the blue eyed girl didn't seem very happy about being there at all.

"Hey guys, what's up?" she greeted.

"And how did you know where I live?"

Ryou smiled guilty and had a small blush on his ivory face as he scratched his cheek.

"Bakura here told us, right?" Joey said smiling goofily as he slung an arm around the albino teen's shoulder.

Xandra laughed at that and walked out of the house, yelling to her uncle that she was leaving before closing the door behind her and walking with the group between Yugi and Ryou as Tea followed behind quietly and the other two goofs joked around, the American unaware of the puzzle around the tri colored boy's neck glowing slightly as the Eye seemed to be looking at her as she laughed with the others at Tristan and Joey's antics.

As they got to school, almost everyone knew about someone beating Seto Kaiba in a duel on his own turf and Xandra couldn't help but feel a little bad for the guy, after all he worked hard to build up a reputation and then had it all pulled out from under him by a rookie.

But then again, he was acting like a complete and total jerk, so he needed the wakeup call.

Besides, she had to focus on what she had just earned about Angel and how she could help her friends from where she was now.

If Dead Boy did anything to buffy and Willow, she would go back to Sunnyhell and drive a stake through his heart herself.

"Xandra, are you all right?" asked Yugi when he saw how quiet she was being.

The American looked at him and smiled, but it was a little forced and he knew it.

"It's nothin' to worry about. It's just, um, a friend of mine back home just went through the mother of all bad break ups and I wish I was there to help her out, that's all." She said with a shrug.

"You really care about your friends." Ryou noted since he had heard her, even though Tea was yelling at the other two to stop fighting and hurry up before they were late to class and got detention.

"I can honestly say that I would beat the jerk who hurt one of my girls to death with a shovel and then dig their graves with that very shovel." She said with a cheery smile, her burgundy eyes flashing green for a second, making the two boys smile nervously at her.

They all ran to class and sat together, spending the rest of the time they had of freedom playing Duel Monsters, Tea beating Joey five times and Xandra beating him six times before the two girls dueled and the azure eyed brunette lost to the American before the bell rang and they quickly gathered everything up and rushed to their seats listening to their teacher take attendance and then drone on about something about the Boxer Rebellion, but Xandra didn't listen since she had read about that when she and Giles were trying to dig up some information on Spike from his past, claiming that he, Drucilla, Darla and Angel had caused problems during that time and he killed a Chinese Slayer.

She sort of zoned out for a bit, but was brought back when she felt some weird dark force coming from somewhere near her and it seemed to be powerful and ancient.

She looked around the room, delving into the shadow of the hyena that was left behind to track it and found it was coming from Ryou, who was hiding a weird golden pendant that was circular with spikes dangling from it and had the Eye of Horus just like Yugi's Puzzle did.

She really hoped that it didn't mean that her new friend had just found some weird demon infected object and she would have to call Buffy to come do some major slayage when she just started her second day at school and the Slayer just had her heart broken by her boyfriend having sex with her and then joining the dark side.

Xandra decided that she should call up Giles and tell him to do some research and not tell Buffy unless it turns out that that thing is really serious and just ask Ryou what it was and where he had gotten it.

TBC


	4. Xandra's deck

_These are the cards that I pretty much made up to be placed in Xandra's deck. Two of them are from my other story 'Supreme Princess' and that is because they fit with Xandra's deck perfectly. Her deck is made up of dark cards because she is the child from the Hellmouth and was taken over by evil once before, so I thought that it would make sense and I believe that Darkness isn't really evil unless it is used that way, which you would understand from my digimon stories._

Angel of Darkness (Female): She is a woman with long black hair, white robe with gold accents on it and has two black wings. She gains a 100% power boost when a monster from darkness is played from her deck or from her opponents' deck. Attack points: 2200, defensive points: 200

Onyx Castle (Magic Card): The Onyx Castle is a field magic card that boosts Angel of Darkness' power up by 1300.

Kaitou (Male): He is a man with black hair, gold eyes, his right covered by an eye patch (Xander loses an eye in the last season of Buffy, so it is meant to have a special value), wears a long black leather coat, leather pants with chains, two purple and black fairy wings and a red claw-like blade on his right arm. He is like the male counterpart to Angel of Darkness and also gains a power boost when a dark creature is played from his master's or opponents' deck. Attack points: 2100, defensive points: 200

Dark Fusion (Magic Card): This card fuses Angel and Kaitou together to create the Goddess of Darkness.

Goddess of Darkness (Female): A tall woman with three black angel wings and three black and purple fairy wings, long black hair that is tied up in a ponytail and gold robes. Attack points: 4100, defensive points: 300

Dark Siren (Female): She is a woman with long sapphire hair, green fin-like ears, pink eyes and a silver mermaid's tail. She has the ability to sing a dark, seductive song that makes the male monsters fell under a dark spell and they start to fight each other and their master. Attack points: 0, defensive points: 390.

Akasha Queen of Vampires (Female): She has black hair, green eyes that have a ring of red around them, tanned skin, wears bronze Egyptian clothing and has cat-like fangs. She bites her opponents and they turn to stone and then shatter. Attack points: 410, defensive points: 90 (She is based off of Akasha from the Queen of the Damned. Xandra hates vampires, but Akasha in her deck makes her realize that she shouldn't be so harsh on judging all vampires because of what Darla did to Jesse at the Harvest)

Mirror Force (Magic Card): This isn't one I made up.

Mystic Elf (Female): This one I didn't make up. She has a strange, powerful bond with Xandra for some odd reason and is the only card in her deck that isn't a darkness or demon.

_There are some more cards that are in Xandra's deck, but these are the ones that I came up with for now and will be seen the most whenever she is forced to duel someone. Thank you for those who are interested in my story so far, I am working on the next chapter, I swear to you._


	5. The Zeppo & the Thief

"The Zeppo and the Thief"

The day ended soon and everyone got everything they needed ready to go home.

Xandra was now at her locker putting her books from last period away when Ryou chose that moment to walk over to her.

"Hello Xandra." He greeted with a kind smile.

"Hey. What's up, Ryou?" she asked taking out her (shudders in disgust) math sheets that were given to her class for homework.

"I was wondering if you'd like to walk home together." He said.

Xandra shut her locker and smiled at him, happy with her unbelievable luck that he had been the one to come to her and made her job a little easier.

Before she could open her mouth to reply, Yugi and the others ran over to the two.

"Hey guys!" Yugi said happily.

"Hello all." Ryou said.

"So are we all walkin' home together again or what?" asked Joey.

"Actually, I hope you guys don't mind, but Ryou and I were gonna walk home together for today." Xandra said, not missing how Tea seemed to be pleased with what she said.

"No, it's fine. We'll see you guys later then." Yugi said a little sadly as he and the others turned and left, Tea giving the American a smug look as she skipped off after the tri colored boy and Xandra's burgundy eyes narrowed in anger.

"That girl is a two faced bitch." She said once the group was out of earshot and she crossed her arms under her chest.

Ryou chuckled darkly and the girl gave him a confused look, silently hoping that he wasn't really possessed by an evil spirit.

She bit the inside of her cheek when she saw that the albino grew a bit, his skinny frame had a little more muscle on him, his bangs were more wild and his brown eyes had a tint of red in them.

But what really stood out was the pendant she saw earlier was now exposed proudly to the world resting on the boy's chest.

"You never fail to me amuse me, Xandra." The Ryou-look alike said in a deep voice.

Xandra laughed nervously at that.

"Yeah, that's, uh, great. So, uh, we should start movin'. Get home. Like now. Before it gets too late." She stuttered.

The albino gave her a stern look, his red tinted eyes narrowed and calculating as he then smirked.

He grabbed Xandra's arm and dragged her off with him out of the school and down the streets to where her house was located to her brief relief.

"So, the child of the Hellmouth had found out my little secret has she?" the albino mused.

"Well, I figured that you're an evil spirit, but that's just about it. How did you know about the Hellmouth?" she asked as he finally let go of her arm and stood in front of her, the look he was giving her making the shadow of the hyena in her purr in pleasure as she felt her legs turn to jelly.

"My dear, I am a 5000 year old spirit. I learn many things over time." He said as he smirked sexily down at her, being able to tell that a part of her was attracted to him.

"See, I knew it. No cute guy can be nice to me unless they are evil. I am forever doomed to not have a nice normal relationship." Xandra muttered under her breath.

The male cupped her chin and looked deep into her burgundy eyes that flashed green and he but back a chuckle.

"That may be because you weren't meant to be with someone like that. Someone boring that will never show you any excitement. You want someone that will make you quiver in desire from the power their radiate." He said in a sensual voice as she began to quiver from the sound and the dark musky scent he had.

He leaned down to speak in her ear, his hot breath sending a wave of pleasure through her.

"You want someone who can make you submit to them. A man who can treat you sweetly is pathetic and weak. You like a challenge. Someone you can fight for dominance with." He said.

Xandra tried to fight through the fog that clouded her mind, but she was having a hard time fighting with the primal urges of the hyena that found this male to be perfect mate material.

After all, she was an alpha and they always wanted a challenge.

Kyle and Tor were nowhere near what she was interested in.

Kyle was the beta and Tor was the omega, not worthy enough to mate with, but the spirit was just as primal as the hyena was and Xandra was feeling that attraction and need right now, no matter how much she fought it.

Just then, the male's scent changed to a more sweet scent and he pulled away, Ryou looking down at his friend in surprise and horror of what had just happened.

"X-Xandra, are you all right? He didn't hurt you did he?" Ryou asked in concern.

Xandra panted and shook the haze away before she smiled at her albino friend.

"I'm good, been through worst. So, what's the deal with that guy anyway?" she asked tilting her head in curiosity.

Ryou sighed and they walked back to the Harris home so he could tell her about the spirit that she had just met.

A half hour later after they made it to the house, ate and finished the work that needed to be done, Ryou sat on Xandra's bed with her, looking upset that he had let the spirit try to seduce her earlier.

"A few years ago my father went to Egypt on an archeogical dig and found this in the tomb of a pharaoh. It's called the Millennium Ring." Ryou explained showing off the pendant to Xandra.

"After that, some weird things have been happening. I kept blacking out and some things would happen that I didn't remember doing afterwards. And I also heard this dark voice in my mind. I soon after found that it came from the spirit that resides in my Ring. I named him Bakura. I've been trying to keep him under control for a while now, but he still manages to get lose no matter what I do." Ryou said with a sad look.

Xandra gave him a sympathetic look and held his hands in her own as she decided to tell him about what she had gone through on the Hellmouth.

She felt great knowing that she had a new friend that she could trust with this information, plus she figured he needed to know why she had almost given into Bakura.

Ryou was shocked and amazed at the information and promised to keep it all a secret from the others and in return, she kept his secret of Bakura.

Later on, Yugi called Xandra in tears and told her about a man named Pegasus stealing his grandpa's soul in a duel and something else called a Shadow Game.

Yugi was forced to go to Duellist Kingdom to win the tournament if he ever wanted to get Solomon's soul back.

Xandra was also worried when she found a package that held an invite, duel glove and two star chips for the tournament too and told Yugi that she would go with him to help him save Solomon.

The boy thanked her and then she advised him to get some sleep and she would see him the next day to go over their strategies for taking down Pegasus.

After that, Xandra called Sunnydale and asked Giles to find out whatever he could about Shadow Games.

The American looked at her deck, her Mystic Elf in particular as she went over everything that had happened in the past few days.

"Lord, it hasn't been a week yet and all this drama has happened. I almost miss the Hellmouth." She groaned.

TBC


	6. A Blonde Cordelia

"A Blonde Cordelia"

Xandra and Yugi met up at the shop and they both walked together to the pier where the ship for Duellist Kingdom was going to set sail for was located.

Giles had called Xandra back and was lived with the information of the Shadow Games.

He said that it was dark magic that was lost to the world over 5000 years ago and they could only be used by the Nameless Pharaoh and the holders of the Millennium Items, which were pretty much the Ring that Ryou had and the Puzzle Yugi had.

The American concluded that the two spirits, Yami and Bakura, were both apart of the whole Shadow Magic things since they were sealed away in the Items, but she didn't know what the connection was.

"Xandra, are you feeling all right?" Yugi's voice brought the girl out of her thoughts and she looked at her friend who seemed to be worried about her.

"Yeah, just thinking. We're gonna get Gramps back and then kick Pegasus' butt. Maybe not in that order, but it will happen." She said confidently.

Yugi smiled at her, feeling thankful that he had her coming along with him.

She just had this way to make things seem better and lighter than before.

She shone a light over dark times with her good humour and carefree attitude and her sweet smiles.

But he was still concerned about what reason Pegasus had for sending her an invite when she was only a beginner of the game, although she was a quick study (claimed it was because she loved games).

There had to be a reason why she was dragged into this and he hoped that in the end he would be going home with Xandra perfectly fine to see his grandpa with his soul returned and safe in the hospital.

"You're right. Everything will be fine as long as we stick together." Yugi said.

"Attention all duelists! Welcome to this event sponsored by Industrial Illusions! You have received star chips with your invitations that would grant you entry into the contest. You're all the elite invited by us after close examination of your past Duel Monsters contests. You each have an equal chance to win. It all comes down to how well you have chosen your cards and how well you play. Now duelists cross the ocean and enter the Duelist Kingdom!" a man working for the company announced.

Xandra and Yugi walked forward in the line they were standing in and were checked out by the men working there before they were allow on.

Before they could even board though, they heard a commotion and turned to see that Joey was there trying to get on.

"And I thought I caused problems." Xandra said.

"You go ahead and I'll help out Joey." Yugi said running over to their friend to save his hide.

Xandra shrugged and walked on, pulling out her cell phone to see if she got any messages from her friends in Sunnydale and saw that Willow had tried to call before.

She walked onto the ship and stayed at the side where the boys could see her as she called her red haired friend to see what she wanted.

"Hello, who is this?" asked the familiar voice that warmed Xandra's heart.

"Hey Willster. How's it going back in good ol' Sunnyhell?" Xandra asked.

"Xandra! Oh my God, is that really you? How are you? Is the tournament going OK? Did you leave yet? What's going on?" the red head asked in her usual perky fashion.

Xandra smiled tenderly as she listened to her childhood friend ramble on.

"I just got on the boat now and I'm fine. Yugi, Joey and I are all going to Duelist Kingdom together." She said when she saw the two boys walking up the plank and over to where she was standing.

"That's great. Oh, by the way, I have something interesting to tell you." Willow said.

"What is it?"

"I may or may not be in a relationship with someone we know." She said.

"No way! Who? Who is the lucky guy who fell for the awesomeness that is Willow?" asked Xandra feeling happy that her friend finally found a guy that liked her and wasn't a demon cyborg.

"It's Oz." Willow said barely containing her excitement.

"Oz? The lead guitar from Dingos? Senior Oz? Wow, I'm impressed that he isn't a typical male. I approve. But if he hurts, remember: I am very handy with a shovel and cleaver." The dark haired girl said.

"Yeah. Oh. There's, uh, something else about him." The red head said nervously and Xandra grew concerned, not paying attention to Yugi and Joey as they walked up to her, standing behind her as they waited for her to be finished with her conversation.

"What is it, Wills?" Xandra asked.

"Oz is a werewolf."

Xandra's eyes widened and she grew stiff making the two boys watching her look worried about what happened.

"What? Will, I'm supposed to be the demon magnet! Merciful Zeus, it's like ever since I left, you and Buffy have been taking over my claim to fame. What, being the smart one and the heroin weren't enough for you two that you just had to steal the whole falling for the bad guys thing away from me? I knew I never should have left. I leave my girls for a week and all hell breaks loose! Un-freaking-believable!" the dark haired female ranted.

Joey and Yugi shared confused looks about what the girl was talking about, but decided to ask later since she looked pretty mad and her eyes were doing that green glowing thing again that only ever happened when she was truly mad about something or was being protective.

"Are you done yet?" Willow asked.

"…Yes." Xandra relented pouting.

"Look, it's fine. Oz only gets all wolfy on the nights of the full moon and we lock him up in a cage and take turns guarding him with a tranquilizing gun. Everything is fine."

"Fine, I will give Oz a chance, but if he so much as humps your leg or pants after another girl, he will be neutered." Xandra said.

"Thank you! Bye, good luck." Willow said hanging up.

Xandra groaned and turned her cell off as she ran her fingers through her thick short hair.

Why did they all have to fall for the non-human guys?

She turned around and shrieked when she saw Joey and Yugi were standing there behind her with uncertain looks in their eyes.

"So, uh, we better go find our cabin, right?" Xandra suggested with a nervous smile.

A little while later the three teenagers were enjoying the cool air of the night as the other people walked around, trading cards and such.

"I'm glad they allowed you on board Joey." Yugi said to the blonde.

"Only because you sacrificed one of your star chips for me, but if any of the other duelists finds out that we only have one star chip each, they could really try and take advantage." Joey said.

"Then don't say anything 'bout it." Xandra said with a smile.

"Kind of excitin', huh guys?" Joey asked as he watched as Domino got smaller and smaller as the ship sailed out.

Xandra smelled something sweet and there was a multitude of the scents, so she turned her head and saw that the different perfumes were coming from a blonde haired woman that had the fashion sense and what looked to be the same attitude as Cordelia Chase.

"Well, what do we have here?" the blonde said in a patronizing tone that confirmed Xandra's thoughts of this woman being like Sunnydale's Queen C.

The two boys turned to see the blonde and Joey was star struck, just like Jesse was when he saw Cordy and it made Xandra feel sad as she began to miss her old friend again.

"So you're this Yugi kid everyone's talking about?" the blonde asked asked.

"Hoho, check it out." Joey said drooling.

The blonde bent down to examine Yugi more closely.

"I'm amazed a squirt like you could beat Kaiba. Your famous you know?"

"Thanks you very much. I think." Yugi said with a small blush.

The blond stood up straighter and was about to leave until Joey spoke up and Xandra sighed, wondering if Joey was Jesse's long lost twin or something with how alike the two were around pretty girls that acted like alpha females.

"Hey, Miss, I'm a really good friend of the famous Yugi, the Master Duelist. In fact..."

"Look, you're either a champ or a chump. Cut these two lose. They're fashion challenged and deserve to be crushed in these games." The blonde snapped.

She was about to walk away again until Joey spoke again and Xandra had to resist the urge to slap him.

"Please crush me?" he said.

"I'll crush you all eventually. The name's Mai." The blonde said.

Mai looked at the dark haired girl that had kept quiet during the whole conversation and quirked a slim brow at her, wondering who she was and how she was invited.

"And who's this?" she asked.

"Oh, no one. Just an unimportant rookie that could never rise up to your level of perfection. Just forget me and go find some sucker to play around with and leave us to our lonesome." Xandra said with a smile as she made a scooting fashion with her hand.

Mai gave her curious look before she smirked in amusement and walked off having a feeling that that girl would be a great cause of entertainment and a battle of words in the future.

She just hoped that she was as much of a good duelist.

After that the three teens met up with Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood and the two were not very kind.

Joey got some new cards for his deck and Weevil tricked Yugi into handing over his Exodea cards to the short boy to look over and he then tossed them overboard and Xandra had to stop herself from doing the same thing to the little pest, but she was held back by a calming voice in her mind that told her to wait until they got to the island and then he would get his just deserts.

Xandra was curious about the voice, but shook it off and focused on Joey when he dived into the water to try and get the cards back.

Yugi was about to jump in to help, but Xandra held him back and said she would go instead since she was a stronger swimmer and dived into the cold water, trying to pull the blonde back to the ship.

Tristan and Tea made a surprise appearance and threw them a line to pull them in.

Joey then told them about his sister Serenity needing money for operation or else she would go blind, so Yugi promised that they would win and get the prize money for his sister and Xandra then smacked him over the head for nearly giving her a heart attack.

Everyone laughed as Xandra yelled at him for doing something so stupid and for making her sound like an over protective parent.

When all of that was done, the dark haired girl then turned her thoughts back to that voice in her head and began to wonder where it had come from.

It was female and it was very sweet and velvet like when she heard it.

She was just going to have to except the fact that her life will forever be plagued with crazy people and the super natural will always worm their way into her life and she couldn't do a thing to change it.

TBC


	7. A Very Weird Dream

"A Very Weird Dream"

Xandra and the others all shared a room and fell asleep together.

Xandra and Tea shared the bed (much to both or their displeasure) while Tristan, Joey and Yugi took the floor to sleep on.

Tea hogged the blankets and pillows and the American glared at the girl who was sleeping, but just curled up as best she could to keep warm and felt herself drift off to sleep.

_Xandra was running down the streets of a very foreign looking place, her dark hair grew out all the way down to her hips and her bangs covering the left side of her face as she ran._

_The dark haired girl looked worried about something._

_She came to a stop near what looked like a night club when she saw two familiar figures dressed in floor sweeping dark coats._

_The two men turned to her and they looked relieved at the sight of her and ran over, revealing themselves as Angel and Spike, two vampires she knew._

"_Xandra, thank God you're here." Angel said as they both stopped in front of the young woman._

"_What's going on? You guys called and said that something happened to Buffy? I got here as soon as I could." Xandra said, pushing her bangs back, her left eye covered by a black eye patch like a pirate would wear._

"_Yeah, how did you get here so fast anyway?" asked Spike._

_Before she could answer, a tall brunette male dressed in a white business suit came running up behind her with a stern look in his sapphire eyes._

"_The helicopter's waiting in a safe place for now." Seto Kaiba said as he stood beside the dark haired young woman._

"_Oh, well that explains it." Spike said._

"_You brought Kaiba?" Angel asked in disbelief._

"_Is there a reason we had to fly all the way to Rome? I had an important business deal that I had to cancel because of this." Kaiba said with a scowl._

"_It's about Buffy. Something terrible has happened." Angel said._

_Xandra lifted up her hands to her mouth, displaying the gold wedding band with the Eye of Horus engraved on it and a simple, yet lovely diamond ring sitting on her finger in all its glory._

"_This is gonna be the toughest challenge yet, pet. She's already in far too deep for us to get to her, so we need your help to save her." Spike said with his smoldering blue eyes that were filled with worry._

"_Would you please just get to the point? You're making Xandra uneasy!" Kaiba snapped when he saw that the woman was very worried, her burgundy eyes shimmering in concern and fear, possibly even rage at whatever had her friend in danger._

"_Buffy is up against a villain from our past and he is very powe-"_

"_Get to the point!" Kaiba snapped at them._

"_She's with the Immortal." Angel said._

_Kaiba and Xandra had confused looks on their faces as they took in the information they heard._

_They shared a look, Kaiba growing infuriated._

"_What?" he growled quietly, his bangs shadowing his eyes._

"_I'm sorry, just let me get my head around this." Xandra chuckled in disbelief._

"_You guys called me to come out all the way to Rome, making me cancel a date with my husband-"_

"_And force me to cancel an important meeting!" Kaiba yelled._

"_-all because you guys are jealous of Buffy's new boyfriend?" Xandra asked,_

"_Wait, you knew?" Angel asked._

"_Yes."_

"_And you're fine with this?" Spike asked._

"_Yes. Buffy brought him as a date to my wedding." Xandra said with a shrug._

"_What?" the two vampires yelled._

"_He's the Immortal!" Spike said._

"_Yeah, he's basically us, but worse. And you hate us." Angel said gesturing to himself and the blonde vampire._

"_Actually, when I first met him, I wasn't too keen of him, but I got used to him. We hang out and he turned out to be a great guy." She said._

_The two vampires looked at each other with their mouths open, beyond shocked._

"_Are you serious?"_

"_What are you talking about?"_

"_He put a spell on her. That has to be it. She wouldn't like him at all unless he put a spell on her." Spike said to his Sire, pointing at the American._

_Kaiba growled lowly as he grabbed Xandra's hand and pulled her away from the two crazy in love men._

"_Let's leave these two fools alone. I need to get back to have a conference with my managers and you need to get back to your husband, At-"_

Xandra woke up when she fell out of her bed, landing on top of a nicely toned chest as two strong arms wrapped around her.

She looked into a pair of scarlet eyes and saw that the tri colored male under her was smirking.

"Hello again, Xandra." He said.

"Oh, hey there Yami." She greeted.

She looked up to glare at the innocent looking girl sleeping on the bed, her dancer's body sprawled out all over it.

"I feel so sorry for the man who marries her one day. The poor guy would be better off sleeping in a separate bed and get used to the floor." She pouted laying her chin on the tri colored male's chest, her head bouncing as he chuckled.

"How tragic." He said smiling at the American.

"Yeah. Can I use you as a pillow?" she asked with begging burgundy eyes that looked black in the night.

Yami brushed her hair back and stretched out his body comfortably as he allowed the girl to cuddle up to him.

"Night, Yams." She said tiredly, pushing that weird dream she had to the back of her mind.

Yami wrapped one arm around her shoulders and folding the other under his head to use as a pillow, her nose tickling his neck as it brushed up against him.

He smiled at how innocent she looked, just like a little girl that was cuddling with her teddy bear.

Xandra inhaled the heavenly scent coming off of the male.

It was like coconut and the warm scent of the desert.

The scent calmed her senses and she fell asleep as he rubbed her back, smiling down at his friend lovingly.

TBC


	8. Into the Hornet's Nest

"Into the Hornet's Nest"

The next morning Xandra woke up before everyone else and saw that she was sleeping on Yugi's chest, so she got up and left to go see if there was any coffee being served to help her wake up properly.

She found some and sat down at a table to watch as some other people on board woke up and walked around and she watched as the boat got closer to Duelist Kingdom.

Joey, Yugi, Tristan and Tea woke up a few minutes later and went out to find her and then sat with her as they watched the island come into view.

"Man, this Duelist Kingdom looks like a pretty big place, Yugi. Finding you grandpa's not gonna be easy." Joey said.

"When something is easy, then it's not worth doing." Xandra said remembering Giles saying something along those lines once about Buffy's training.

"Besides, he has us. We'll help him, right guys?" she asked the others with a smile.

Tea, even though she didn't like the girl, couldn't help but agree with her.

"Thanks guys." Yugi said smiling at them all.

The ship finally stopped and the group all got off together as the security greeted the other people on board, welcoming them.

"Hey, Tea, what if one of those security guys finds out we're both stowaways? We oughta just play it safe and swim back." Tristan said panicked to the azure eyed brunette quietly so they weren't heard.

"We're in the middle of nowhere, lame brain! If you could just try and act normal, we'll be OK." Tea said loudly and Xandra gave her a disapproving look.

Yugi and Xandra walked down the plank together, Joey and Tea following calmly as Tristan was stiff, hoping none of the guards noticed how nervous he was, but one of them did and called out to him making him freeze.

"Don't look so nervous, you guys are our guests here." The man said.

"That's right. I'm your guest." Tristan said with a small bow and then ran over to the group, leaning against the American as he tried to calm down his rapidly beating heart.

"I think I just had a heart attack." He panted.

"Way to play it cool, Tristan. That wasn't suspious at all." Tea said sarcastically.

"What's got your too small panties in a bunch?" Xandra asked making Yugi blush and the two taller boys snicker as Tea glared at her, but the girl just gave her an innocent smile.

"All right, every single one of us made it here safe and sou-"Joey sneezed then, making Tea cringe away.

"You would never had caught that cold if it wasn't for Weevil." Yugi said remembering the bug lover throwing his Exodea cards over board last night and Joey jumped in to go save them, but only came back with three of them when Xandra jumped in to bring him back up.

"Speaking of our wormy friend, looks like he just slithered his way off the boat and is already lookin' ta start some trouble." Joey said as the group all looked to where the boy was.

"That slime ball. I'd love ta wipe that smirk off his face." The blonde said as Xandra felt the shadow of the hyena growl at the sight of the short blue haired boy as he looked their way with a smug smirk and she had to will herself to not go over there and 'accidentally' push him into the water.

"_Calm yourself, Alexandra. It would not do you any good if you act rashly. Allow Yugi to deal with that unpleasant boy himself."_ A calming voice said in her mind as the shadow left.

"That castle's gotta belong to Pegasus." Yugi said as a security guard pointed the guests to all head that way to be greeted by their host.

"Then what are we waitin' for?" Joey and Xandra asked and then looked at each other in shock before shrugging and walking off with their friends in tow.

As they all walked up the stairs, Tea gasped and said that she saw Bakura and Xandra had to calm herself and remind herself that everyone called Ryou by that name and it wasn't the spirit of the Ring.

No one saw him so they continued on, but Xandra paused when she caught a glimpse of white down in the forest and was sure that it was Ryou before Joey pulled her along and she really started to wonder if the blonde was related to her deceased friend Jesse.

When they all reached the top, people were all talking about the famous duelists that were there like Weevil Underwood, Rex Raptor and Mako Tsunami.

They also wondered where Kaiba was, but some other kids said that he was bested by someone else on his own turf, making Yugi blush and Xandra chuckled at how cute he looked when he was bashful.

Pegasus then came out and explained how the tournament was going to work and the American saw her tri colored friend looking down at his deck that belonged to Solomon with a longing look.

She smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder in comfort and he looked up at her, smiling in gratitude.

"_You truly have a gift for helping those you care for. Use that gift and everything will turn out right."_ Said that voice in Xandra's mind again.

Xandra saw everyone putting on their dueling gloves so she did the same, deciding to try and figure out what that voice was for later, but for some odd reason, she felt like she knew where it was coming from and who it was but couldn't figure it out yet.

When Pegasus said that they had an hour to prepare themselves and that the duels started after the fireworks went off, he was staring right at Yugi and his uncovered eye glanced briefly at Xandra, satisfied that she was there.

When Xandra met his eye, she couldn't help but see some loneliness and pain that was hidden away in his brow eye and wondered what could have happened to hurt him.

Was it possible that whatever it was is also responsible for making him use this Shadow Magic?

Xandra was brought out of her thoughts when everyone began to leave and her group found their way to a lovely field that had lush green grass, various flowers and a few butterflies sitting on the plants, the sun light reflecting off their colorful wings.

"I don't know if I can win this thing. Maybe it would be best for you to take your star chip back." Joey said holding the star chip the tri colored boy had given him.

"Nah, you keep it. Your little sister's counting on you to win the tournament's prize money for her."Yugi said kindly.

"Thanks man." Joey said.

"You can do it. You just gotta steer clear of the more experienced duelists at first." Tea said.

"Yeah, it's just a matter of working your way up." Tristan said.

"Thanks you guys." Joey said.

"Well, Yugi, between you grandpa and my sister, we don't have any room for mistakes."

"Right." The tri colored boy nodded.

The fireworks then went off and the group set off to find their first duel, the dark haired girl's phone beeping and checked her messages to see that Willow said she, Oz, Buffy, Cordelia, Joyce and Giles were all watching the tournament on TV and were rooting for her to win.

She smiled at that and then put her phone back in her pocket.

**(Did I forget to say what Xandra was wearing? If I did, then here it is. A dark green v-neck tank top with a jean jacket, black pants, no healed black boots, a silver cross around her neck and her dark haired tied back in a low ponytail. Like? Great, back to the story.)**

"So, what's you plan, Yugi?" Joey asked.

"Well, I might as well stick with Weevil. After all, we do have a score to settle." Yugi said.

"I was hopin' you'd say that." Joey said.

"Isn't that him?" Tea said and the group looked ahead to see the buggy boy standing at the edge of a forest, looking like he was waiting on them.

"Weevil. Weevil, I challenge you to a duel!" Yugi yelled, but the blue haired boy turned and ran into the forest, making the group chase after him.

The American got the feeling that he was leading them into a trap and it was only further proven when they were attacked by a bunch of moths and Tea jumped behind the girl, cowering to get away from the bugs as Xandra and the guys waved their arms to chase the insects away.

They all ran into a clearing and saw the buggy boy standing there with a smug, yet pleased look on his face.

"There he is!" Yugi said.

"'Welcome,' said the spider to the fly. 'You have flew right into my trap!'" Weevil said with a deranged look on his face.

"It's time you answered for what you did on the boat, Weevil." Yugi said.

His Puzzle then began glowing and Xandra looked at him as she saw Yugi transform into Yami and nearly hit herself when the others didn't notice and began to question how their brains worked.

"Huh. All right, Weevil, time to find out if you're as good at dueling as you are at running away." Yami taunted.

"Simply running away or cleverly luring you into my web?" Weevil asked with a leer as his eyes darted to Xandra.

"It's time to duel." Yami said standing protectively in front of the California girl when he saw the look in the buggy boy's eyes.

"As you wish!" Weevil shrieked and then the ground began to shake, Yami grabbing Xandra to keep her from falling over as a large dueling stadium rose from the ground.

Yami and Weevil got up and then started out their duel, some kids running over to see who was starting the duels already.

Eventually Mai came along and was getting under Tea's skin and the azure eyed girl was failing at her verbal battle with the blonde, so Xandra took over much to the two women's surprise and Mai smirked as they indulged in the quips, insults and such that they threw at each other.

Yami in the end won the duel and the group cheered for him as Mai turned to leave.

"Hey Xan." She said to the American.

"Let's do this again sometime." She said with a wink.

Xandra giggled and winked right back.

"I love having an all-out verbal smack down, so that'd be great." She said to the blonde who laughed and walked away.

Xandra shook her head as she watched the woman walk off and figured that she was wrong about Mai.

Cordelia and the blonde may share that fire and alpha female spirit, but they don't have the same wit.

"What was that about?" Joey asked as Yami walked over turning back into Yugi with three star chips on his glove.

"Oh, nothing much. We just formed a mutual rivalry. Not that interesting." Xandra said with a grin and shrug as she began to walk off away from the crowd.

"A mutual rival-? Hey wait up!" Tristan called out as he, Joey, Yugi and Tea ran after the dark haired girl.

Xandra laughed as they caught up to her and they all walked off to find their next duel.

TBC


	9. The Fake Psychic

"The Fake Psychic"

Joey was into his next duel and wanted to win.

Xandra shook her head and laughed at that as she and the others chased after him.

The American began asking him questions about his sister Serenity and she smiled when he told her about the time he brought his sister to the beach before making her remember the time she and her friends went to the beach, but that ended in Buffy slaying some weird demon that was there.

The group stopped in a meadow region where a bunch of duels were going on and heard someone laughing and loudly talking about her win.

"You lost, cry baby, now give me your star chips!" a woman's voice demanded.

"A voice that annoying could only belong to one person." Tea said with a frown.

"Harmony?" Xandra said gaining curious looks from her friends.

"Oh yeah, I guess I only told Ryou about the people from Sunnydale, huh?"

"I meant Mai." Tea said while Yugi pouted when he heard that Ryou knew more about Xandra's life than he and the others did.

The group then walked over to where Mai was telling a purple haired boy wearing what looked like a bee shirt to leave and he left crying his eyes out after accusing her of cheating.

"Hey Queen M, what's up?" Xandra asked when they were a few feet away from the blonde haired woman.

"Well, look who's here." Mai said when she saw the group, but was curious about the nickname that the dark haired girl had given her.

"Wow, Mai's already won two more star chips." Joey said.

"Hey, Yugi, are your duels going well?" Mai asked sweetly and Xandra had to try not to laugh at the annoyed and jealous look that was on Tea's face.

"I'm making progress." Yugi said.

Mai surprised him by taking his glove covered hand in hers.

"So you have three star chips do you? I might be up for a duel myself."

"Take her." Tea said with a creepy look on her face.

"What?" Yugi asked.

"Knock her out of the contest and off this island." Tea said.

"You act worst around Mai than I do around Cordelia." Xandra said once again gaining confused looks from everyone.

"Rich, stuck up, posh brat I've known for eleven years. Strange enough, she was my friend Jesse's dream girl. Of course that may have been because she's pretty, rich and wears clothing that makes her look like a hooker." Xandra said with a big smile, although Yugi and Mai were the only ones who saw the pain in her eyes when she said Jesse's name.

"And this girl is one of your friends?" Tea asked remembering her saying that the necklace around her neck had a charm that stood for each of her friends and the 'C' stood for Cordelia.

"We have a love hate relationship, it's very complicated. See, I would never let anyone hurt Cordy…except for me, but that's where the complicated relationship thing comes into play." Xandra said moving her hands as she spoke.

"It makes you two sound more like sisters." Mai said with a smile as she labeled the relationship between the two girls.

Xandra perked her lower lip out in thought, rolling the idea of her and Cordy being sisters around in her mind and shrugged it off.

"You know, I'm defiantly in the mood for a duel right now. So get ready because I choose to challenge…you, Joey!" Mai said pointing at the blonde haired teen.

"What?" Joey yelped.

"You challenge me?" he asked.

"Do have the guts to accept? Get it? I wanna play you kid."

"Huh. Guess you heard about my skill." Joey gloated.

"Don't flatter yourself. I overheard you, Xan and Yugi talking on the boat and I know he gave you the only star chip that you have. My moto is; take out the weakest players first." Mai said with a wink.

"And considering that you wouldn't be here if Yugi hadn't given you one of his chips, you must be the weakest duelist on the island." Mai concluded.

Xandra blinked as she thought about how much the blonde must have thought this over.

"Do ya have ta be so...insultin'?" Joey asked.

"This time she was being truthful." Tea muttered making the blonde blanch at her as Xandra gave her an annoyed look.

"Mai's ruthless, don't duel her first." Tea advised.

"Don't you get it? If you lose this contest, you're out for good." Tristan said.

"Yugi, stand up for Joey. You have to fight her in his place." Tea said.

"Oh for the love Pete! What kind of friends are you?" Xandra exclaimed making them all jump as she faced them with her glowing green eyes.

"You're acting like he doesn't even have a chance to do anyrhing right. Look, where I come from, I was always seen as the zeppo and it looks like Joey is seen that exact same way, which really pisses me off! He can do this if he belives in himself, but how is he supposed to prove himself if his so called friends are bagging him when he tries to prove himself?" Xandra said feeling the shadow of the hyena taking over again.

"Now you are going to shut you're pathetic little trap and only open it for words of encouragement, not ones that will knock him down or I swear that I will be the one to knock you on that huge ass of yours. Is that understood?" she snarled at the azure eyed brunette as the others all cowered away from the girl.

"_Alexandra, you must calm yourself, please."_ Came the voice in her head again and she felt the primal shadow fading away.

"_I understand that you feel that pack mentality from the Alpha powers you had before and are very protective of your friend, but you must calm yourself before you lose control and hurt someone."_ The woman said again and Xandra saw a light blue hand touching her shoulder, sending a calming aura through her body that calmed the hyena's shadow completely.

Yugi sighed in relief when he saw Xandra's eyes return to their normal burgundy color, but he was still wondering about how and why her eyes did that thing all the time.

"Remind me to never get on your bad side." Mai commented when she saw the dark haired girl was back to normal and was taking in a few deep breaths.

Xandra scoffed a laugh at that pushing a stray strand of hair out of her face.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that, guys. I just…get overly emotion I guess." She said with a sheepish smile.

"Nah, don't worry about that. It's good ta know that ya believe in me." Joey said gaining a smile from the American, Tristan and Yugi.

Mai looked over at Tea and saw that the azure eyed girl was gaping at how easily everyone had forgiven the girl for getting all primal and nearly attacking her.

The violet eyed woman smirked at that.

Xandra may look sweet and dorky, but she had a power inside her that she used to help out the people she cared about.

Mai preferred that over hearing some lame friendship speeches that would just get scoffed at and ignored later on because of the length of them.

"Show Mai what you're made of, Joey." Yugi said with a smile.

"Right. She thinks I'm a push over, but we'll see." Joey said.

"Go for it. Just remember what you're fighting for." Xandra said giving him a playful slap on the back, sending him off to battle Mai.

During the duel, Joey was struggling because he wasn't focussing and Xandra's nose kept twitching at the heavy scent of perfumes that Mai had used.

She smelt them before on the boat, but she was trying to figure out why she had used so many.

Her question was answered by Joey when he said that Mai was faking her psychic technique by identifying the cards by the different types of perfumes she sprayed on them.

He then ended the duel by playing his Baby Dragon and making it age 1000 years with his Time Wizard that Yugi had given him, but it also aged Mai's three Harpy's Ladies and weakened them.

The Thousand Years Dragon blasted the three harpies away and destroyed the rest of Mai's life points, making Joey the winner of the duel.

TBC


	10. Zeppo goes Alpha

"The Zeppo Goes Alpha"

Yugi had just finished a duel with a guy named Mako Tsunami who had a deck filled with water based monsters and won.

Now the group were just walking around trying to find a new duel to deal with.

"It looks like we need to find someone for you to duel next, eh, Xan?" Tristan said.

"Yeah, I know. My friends said they were watching the tournament so that they could see me duel and sadly it seems like it's not gonna happen soon." Xandra said frowning down at the two star chips on her glove, feeling as though they were mocking her

"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll get your chance soon." Yugi encouraged with a smile.

The American looked over to her friend and smiled, but she still felt upset that she didn't to duel with anyone yet, but decided to push it aside for now.

She just wished that she could do something to contribute to their team.

"Wait, my star chips were stolen!" they heard a cry.

They looked over to see some men in suits were putting kids on boats to be sent off the island.

"It's not fair!" the kid continued.

"What happened?" Yugi asked as the group ran over.

"My star chips were stolen before I got a chance to duel. When I had set them down as we were going to start, the kid just took them and ran." explained the boy.

"What? That's totally bogus." Xandra said with a frown.

"Don't worry, we'll stop this thief." Yugi told him.

The group ran out to a clearing after the man in the suit said that the boat was leaving in half an hour.

"So what's the plan, Yug'?" Joey asked.

"The guy will come to challenge us. So we have to be ready. We have to act as bait." he answered.

"Okay."

And the plan worked.

A kid came out into the clearing with a bandana covering his head and he dueled with Yugi, who had turned into Yami, and Xandra's nose twitched when shecaught a familiar scent from the boy and she found out why when Yami outed him as Seto Kaiba's younger brother, Mokuba Kaiba, who had negative emotions towards the tri colored male because after he defeated Kaiba he wasn't acting like himself and left hm alone.

Mokuba also said that Pegasus was trying to take over Kaiba Corp. and was using him as bait to draw out his brother.

They managed to talk Mokuba into giving the kid his star chips back and they all ran off to see that the boat was leaving without them.

Mokuba tried to reason with the man, Kemo, but he just hit the kid's hands that were holding out the star chips and they fell into the water and Xandra's eyes turned green at the sight.

"You're coming with me back to Pegasus." Kemo said grabbing the boy's arm.

"Let him go now!" Xandra demanded making the man look at her.

"What are you going to do if I don't?" Kemo taunted.

The American grit her teeth as she fought back a snarl.

"This." She said.

Tapping into the shadow of the hyena, she moved quickly and easily grabbed the man's free arm and twisted it making him cry out in pain as he lost his grip on Mokuba and that made the dark haired female let Kemo's arm go and she stepped between the raven haired boy and the man, shielding him.

"You little wretch." Kemo hissed as he stood up.

"Go Xan." Joey cheered impressed by her strength as Yugi stared at her in shock.

"You want the kid, you go through me." She said her eyes glowing their haunting green color as she stood up tall and proud.

Yami couldn't help but think that she resembled a queen with how she was standing her ground with courage and pride oozing from her, but there was also a primal force surrounding her that he was curious about.

"Very well. Then I say we have a duel for the brat." Kemo said.

"Xandra, wait, this might not be a good idea." Tea said.

"Think this through. He could toss you off the island if you lose." Tristan warned.

Xandra wasn't listening to them.

The hyena was in control now and the only thing she was focusing on was that someone from outside her pack had threatened a pup and as Alpha it was her duty to protect him.

"Name the terms." She said, her voice confident and powerful.

Mokuba looked up at the girl who was standing up for him and he wondered why she was going to all this trouble for him.

"If you win then the boy goes with you, free. But if you lose, the boy comes back with us to Pegasus and you, like you spiked haired friend said, get thrown on the next boat off the island." Kemo said smirking.

Xandra smirked herself and thrilled a small laugh that sounded like that of a hyena's making the people around her look at her in confusion.

"Oh, how cute! You think I'm scared of the big bad man." She cooed as she stalked closer to him, making him take a step back.

The hyena in her purred as she caught the scent of his fear rolling off of him.

"Name the time and place. If you break your promise, there will surely be consequences." She said.

Kemo gave her the information she needed and he then took off, the scent of fear still on him and soiled pants.

"_Alexandra, please come back now."_ The voice said and Xandra felt the primal force leave at once.

She was wondering why she kept losing herself to the hyena like that, it never happened in Sunnydale so why was it happening now?

She really needed to talk with Giles.

"Um, excuse me." Mokuba said gaining her attention.

"Yeah?" she asked turning to him, her eyes back to their original color to the relief of her friends.

"Why did you help me? I mean, I don't even know you." He said.

"I don't know a lot of people, but I still help them if they need it. Plus I don't like watching others get bullied." She stated with a smile.

Mokuba smiled up at her.

An hour later, the group off to go have their duel with Kemo and Xandra made sure that Mokuba was standing between Tristan and Joey so he would be safe from harm and had Tea standing behind the boy so no one grabbed him from behind.

They were all shocked when they saw that Kaiba was going to be Xandra's opponent, but she could tell it wasn't really him so she got up and dueled the imposter.

She was struggling, but was doing fine when she calmed down and put her trust in her deck like Solomon had taught her to do and they came through to her.

She had trouble when the imposter, who had Kaiba's stolen deck with him, played the Blue Eyes, but the real Kaiba somehow hacked the system and lowered the dragon's power and heard the call of its master, so it was defeated.

Yami came out and revealed the imposter's true form, that happened to be a sick looking clown and Xandra cringed when she remembered being chased by a clown with a butcher knife on her fifth birthday and again in the Nightmare World, but she shook it off and decided to play her Pitch Black Warwolf and had her Mystic Elf chant a spell to give her beast a higher attack power to defeat the second Blue Eyes the clown had and blasted away the rest of the life points.

"She did it!" Joey cheered.

"Oh, yeah! That's our girl!" Tristan said as he and Joey high fived.

Tea couldn't help but smile too, especially as Mokuba cheered for the girl freeing him and Yami looked at the American with pride.

"Now beat it. You're beginning to make me sick." Xandra said to the clown and Yami took that chance to mind crush the clown and he went to the Shadow Realm where he belonged.

Xandra smiled, feeling good about herself for helping out someone and was shocked when she saw her Mystic Elf looking right at her with a soft smile and the blue skinned woman gave her a wink before the holograms faded away and the girl collected her deck and went over to her friends as they crowded around her, Mokuba latching onto her waist and smiling up at her in awe like a brother would to his sister and she smiled down at him, feeling like she made an even bigger accomplishment than she already did.

It was then decided that he would be traveling with them until Kaiba came to the island, and they all knew that he would be there soon.

Xandra would bet her entire comic book collection on it.

TBC


	11. A Battle in Love

"A Battle in Love"

**(BTW, did you know that Xandra is a real name? I just looked it up and its meaning is Defender of the People. I did not know that. I just thought I'd add that fun little note. Enjoy the story. Oh, and there's slight yuri here. Was that spelt right? Whatever.)**

The group were still walking along after the duel with that fake Kaiba, Mokuba safely with them, holding onto Xandra's hand as they walked.

"OK, I'm in need of a duel desperately." Xandra said.

"You were just in a duel." Tea stated.

"Yeah, but look." The American said holding up her duel glove that still only held two star chips.

"Look at it all bare and mocking me. Oh, yes. It is mocking me with its bareness." The dark haired girl said as she glared at the eight empty holes.

Tea rolled her eyes at that while the four males in the group looked at their American friend in amusement.

"Don't worry, Xandra. I'm sure you'll find someone to duel soon." Mokuba said with a smile.

The dark haired girl looked down at the raven haired boy and she couldn't help but smile back at him, unable to resist his innocent boyish charms.

He'll be a heartbreaker when he hits puberty.

"Well, isn't this a sight." A female voice said.

The group turned around to see a blonde haired girl that wore pink short shorts, black wedge shoes and a black long sleeved top was standing behind them with a smug look shining in her caramel eyes.

"I heard someone was looking for a duel." She said.

"Who is that?" Tea asked.

"Who cares?" Tristan and Joey asked, drooling over the blonde that made Xandra think of Harmony for some reason.

"Yeah, that's right. So who're you?" Xandra asked stepping forward.

"I am Hope LaFonte and I am hoping you're prepared to duel me unless you want to get booted off this island." Hope said pointing at her.

Xandra smiled and agreed.

The group walked off to where a duel arena was situated in a field of flowers that was near a ledge that over looked the ocean and some kids were running up to watch the duel between the two girls.

"You ready to go, honey?" Hope asked.

"It's Xandra Harris and you better believe I am." She said.

"Duel!" they both yelled.

They both drew five cards into their hands.

"I'll start first." Hope said.

"I play Maiden in Love to start things off."

A girl that looked like she was maybe ten years old came out on the field with a giggle and winked at the crowd.

"Aw, she's so cute! Just like a fairy tale princess." Xandra said.

Maiden in Love blushed and giggled at the dark haired girl's words.

"I think she likes you." Hope said with a smile.

"Yeah, well, she's gonna hate me pretty soon, cause I play Kaitou." Xandra said playing her male monster.

"Wow, what a hottie!" Hope gushed with hearts flying around her head.

Xandra blinked at that, then looked at her monster and nodded, dubbing him pretty hot, especially with all that leather that hugged is body and the coat being half open, showing off his muscular chest.

"Yeah, I'd date him." She said, unaware that Kaitou blushed at her words.

Kaitou then attacked Maiden in Love, but she wasn't destroyed thanks to some special effect that also took away some of Hope's life points.

"Uh, what happened?" Xandra asked, looking around as the scenery around them turned all yellow with flowers floating down and Maiden in Love ran at the leather clad fallen angel.

"What happened is that you're about to lose. No man can resist feminine charms, unless their gay." Hope said.

Kaitou stepped to the side as the maiden threw herself at him, hoping he would catch her, but she just fell flat on her face.

Xandra winced at that.

"Kaitou, I don't care if she's the enemy right now, where is your chivalry?" xandra scolded making the male monster look back at his master.

"Who's she talkin' to?" Joey asked since he and the others couldn't really see the scene before them, except for Yugi.

"Her monster." Tristan said unsure.

"Oh, how mean. You just let me fall." Maiden in Love whimpered looking up at the fallen angel with her gray eyes filled with tears.

Kaitou knelt down and held a hand out to her.

"You are right. It was not a kind thing to do. Please forgive me." He said.

Maiden in Love smiled and Xandra gaped when she realized that the little "princess" had played them.

"Oh, I can think of a few things you can do to make it up to me." Maiden in Love said blowing a kiss at him that was a pink heart.

It hit Kaitou, but it didn't do what the maiden and Hope were expecting.

"Hey, you aren't in love with my maiden! Why not?" Hope asked wit wide eyes.

"So that's it! Maiden in Love makes male monsters fall under some lame love spell and you use other people's monsters to go against them that way." Kaitou said with a smirk as he stood up.

"What? You tried to put my monster under a lame ass love spell? How dare you!" Xandra said pointing at her accusingly.

"But I don't know why it didn't work on your monster. I mean, he's male. He should have fell under the spell." Hope said.

Kaitou laughed, is deep voice sounding pleasant.

"It does not work on monsters that are already in love."

"What?" yelled Hope, Maiden in love and Xandra.

Kaitou turned his head to his master, is stoic face taking on a soft smile as he looked at her.

"Xandra, do you love me? Or any of the other monsters in your deck?" he asked shocking her.

"We all love you. And it is that love that keeps us faithful to you and protects us from spells like these. So thank you for this gift." Kaitou said bowing much like a gentleman from the 1800's.

Xandra smiled.

"Hey, as long as you guys don't turn against me and hurt me then I'm happy to supply all the love you guys need." She said with a wink.

Hope watched in awe at the real emotion shared between the two and wondered how this rookie could have it and not her.

"Let's put that love to the test, Kai!" Xandra said.

"As you wish!" Kaitou said.

He then charged at the Maiden in Love and destroyed her, cutting back Hope's life points.

"Great, so I now place this card face down and turn the table to you." Xandra said placing down a card.

Hope frowned and looked over her hand before she chose a card and played it.

"Say hello to my Ojama Yellow." She said playing a strange looking monster that had a cheeky grin on his face.

"Hello Ojama Yellow." Xandra said pleasantly making Hope face palm.

"I didn't mean literally!" she yelled.

"Ew! What is that?" Tea asked.

"That is one creepy lookin' monster." Joey.

"Yep." Tristan said.

Ojama Yellow burst into tears and wriggled around as he did so like you would see some characters in animes do when they were being dramatic.

"Oh, how pathetic." Kaitou said.

"Wow, you guys sure are mean. Give the guy…thing a chance. He might be better than you think." Xandra said making the creature stop crying and then look at her with hearts in his eyes.

Ojama bounced around as hearts flew around his head and he blew a kiss to the American, making everyone look at it weird as Kaitou's eye twitched at the action and the Millennium Puzzle glowed, Yami making an appearance, glaring at the creature.

"Are you flirting with her, you traitor?" Hope yelled.

"Eh, what can I say. I'm a monster magnet." Xandra shrugged crossing her arms.

"Ojama, attack her face down card now!" Hope ordered.

Ojama Yellow did as told, but Xandra smirked as she flipped her card up, revealing a trap card called Dark Hole, that reflected the attack and took out 500 of Hope's life points, Ojama Yellow being destroyed in the process.

After that, it was finished off by Kaitou attacking the life points head on, making them all go down to zero.

"And that's game!" Xandra said pumping her arm in the air.

The two girls collected their decks and got down to shake hands and Hope handed the American two star chips.

"Here, you deserved them." She said smiling.

"Thanks, it was a good duel." Xandra said.

"Yeah, it was. Which is why I think I deserve a reward too." Hope said with a bright smile, a glint of mischief in her eyes.

The group looked at her curiously.

"What reward? You lost." Tea said.

"This." Hope said.

As quick as lightning, she leaned in and brushed her lips against Xandra's, making the group, the crowd that watched the duel and Yami all stare in shock as the dark haired female froze up, not being able to believe that this was really happening.

Hope pulled back, licking her lips and she smiled innocently, looking like a child who was enjoying a candy.

"Mmm, you taste sweet. Just like caramel and chocolate. See you around, Xandra!" Hope said running off, waving to the dark haired girl that was still frozen in shock.

"Did that just…happen?" Tea asked once the blonde was far away.

Mokuba frowned and looked up at the wide eyed American.

"I don't get it. What happened?" he asked.

"You don't want to know." Tea, Joey and Tristan said as Yami walked over to Xandra, watching the figure of Hope getting farter off from them with an intense glare.

TBC


End file.
